Professor James Mitchell has a rock star reputation. With a waitlist for all his classes, a best-selling book, and the requisite leather jacket, the university and publisher are eager to capitalize on this British sensation. But after his girlfriend leaves him for another man, James goes from rising scholar to spiraling bad boy. Forget contracts and tenure, James wants out—of his job, his book deal, and, better still, the country. He’s well on his way when his boss’s daughter walks into his favorite bar . . .

Aspiring filmmaker Ali Ferguson-Day doesn’t scare easily. She’s been given the means to make a film of her own—on the condition she tames the professor. As the daughter of a famed documentarian and a renowned historian, she’s more than ready to step out of her parents’ shadows and shine on her own. She won’t let anyone—not even an unexpected charmer—get in her way.

James and Ali butt heads from the start, but it isn’t long before their sparring gives way to attraction. There’s the promise of even more, if they can get past the fear of history repeating itself to let love in . . .

Excerpt:

Ali swiveled in her seat, searching the faces of the dozens of men crowded in the bar. It wasn’t an easy task. Amarillo Sour catered to an eclectic mix. There was everyone from a group of barely legal college guys to a couple of white-haired men stooped over their pints.

“Okay, I give up.” She shook her head. “Which one is he?”

“Do you see the guy with the Link Digital shirt and the pretty blonde who are chatting up Ford?”

Nodding, Ali squinted her eyes in an attempt to get a better look. The guy was tall and lanky, and like Sidney said, wearing a royal blue T-shirt with the LD logo on it. Even though she’d been away for the better part of a decade, Ali had heard about the tech start-up that had become one of the city’s top employers during the past five years.

Not that he couldn’t wear whatever he liked, but why would the professor have one of those shirts?

Ali had been way off on her description of the professor. He looked more like a software developer than a historian. “You’re right. He’s not at all what I expected.”

“That’s not him either. That’s Ian.”

Ali’s eye twitched. “Are you trying to drive me crazy, or are you just being cute?”

“See the guy in the leather jacket on Ian’s other side? That’s the professor.”

“The leather jack . . .” Ali trailed off as her eyes landed on the man Sidney claimed was James Mitchell.

She’d still been wrong in her guess.

Beyond the leather jacket, his thick brown hair was neatly cut but messily styled. She wondered if that came from running his fingers through it or careful minutes spent in front of the mirror.

She had the same questions about the tattoos she saw scattered over the knuckles of his fingers.

If she had to guess, she wouldn’t put him over his early thirties. Not much older than her.

He was . . . hot. There were better ways to describe him. As a storyteller, she should have found countless words, but she was drawing a blank. It was hard to believe the dangerous-looking young man was the historian behind the book tucked away in her purse. Then again, Ali hadn’t even looked him up online yet.

“Who would have thought?” Ali murmured. “That’s James Mitchell.”

“Or so he tells us.” Sidney cocked her head to the side. “I actually read his book. It’s pretty good.”

Ali had too many questions to dwell on his writing style. “What’s he like?”

“He’s . . . complicated. Honestly, I’m not sure this will be an easy assignment. He’s been through a lot.”

“Like what?”

Sidney shook her head. “You’ll have to get that out of him yourself. Doctor-patient confidentiality.”

“You’re not a doctor.”

“No, but I’m a bartender. That’s almost as good as being his therapist. But”—she lowered her voice—“anything he’s told me was off the record.”

That was a term Ali understood. That made it all the more intriguing. “You think I’m going to have a hard time cracking him?”

“You’re going to have your work cut out for you.”

It was a good thing Ali didn’t mind getting her hands dirty. Especially when a project intrigued her. And James Mitchell definitely seemed intriguing.

Laura Chapman is the award-winning and Amazon best-selling author of sweet and sexy romantic comedies. A born and raised Nebraska girl, she loves watching football, traveling, crafting, and baking. When she isn’t writing her next story, she is probably working at a museum by day and binge-watching Netflix with her cats Jane and Bingley at night. So, basically, she’s living large.